"Harpman and John were farming. It was the rainy season and the boll weevils were eating the crop up. The men gathered on street corners and talked about the Dodson case and their condition. And then Harpman and John said, "Why aren't we registered to vote?"

"So they went up and asked if they could register. The people at the courthouse said they had no objection to them registering and they could serve on the jury. And Harpman and John thought they really meant it.

"I begged Harpman not to go. I said, 'You know your wife needs you.' " It was June 1959.

"I was a substitute teacher then. I was going to get my degree so I could teach. I had wanted to teach all my life. When I got out of school, they knew who I was, so they didn't call me to teach.

"Harpman and John were going to vote for sheriff. They went to the polls, but when they got there, they were told it was an all-white primary and no blacks were permitted to vote. They didn't let them step in the door. Harpman and John were so disappointed.

"An attorney advised them to file an affidavit against the election commission so they did. It was the fall of 1959 after the harvest and the white landowners started to make people move out.

"Bad as it was in Tent City, many people said they felt warmer in the tents than they had in the houses they had lived in on the farms.

"The lawsuit filed against the landowners meant they were enjoined from making people move. So they got smarter. They weren't as blatant.

"Some of the original people who treated blacks so poorly are still living in Fayette County. Some have offspring who are worse than their parents were. There's a lot of attitude here yet. We are still ostracized by blacks and whites. Whites wouldn't do it if blacks didn't."